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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24407176">What Could Go Wrong?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/zombiemarker/pseuds/zombiemarker'>zombiemarker</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fake Dating, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Idiots in Love, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Pre-Relationship, idiots to lovers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:00:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,000</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24407176</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/zombiemarker/pseuds/zombiemarker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-reveal pre-relationship idiots still can't recognise their feelings for each other, but fake dating would solve a lot of problems, right?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>171</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>What Could Go Wrong?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Marinette had heard out some incredibly dumb ideas from her partner before. Some of them had even worked. But this one took the cake.<br/>
“You want us to do what?”</p><p>Adrien who had been comfortable sprawled in her chaise for almost an hour now continued to grin over at her. “You heard me. It’s the best excuse-”</p><p>“No one’s going to believe it!” She should have known he’d been quiet for too long to have not been thinking of some kind of dumb plan. </p><p>“But hear me out! What are they going to believe more? Marinette and Adrien who both take far too long bathroom breaks during akuma attacks, or Marinette and Adrien the couple who would not be the first people to take advantage of an akuma attack to get some quality alone time? Even if it’s not exactly true, it’s foolproof!”</p><p>“Kitty, you know how I feel about lying. And to all of our friends?” She shook her head, turning back to her design. “Besides, someone’s going to call us out on it eventually.”</p><p>“Marinette, unless I’m mistaken, Alya thinks we’re already dating and are just refusing to admit it,” He stretched, wandering over to lean against her desk. “We do look a little couple-y.”</p><p>“How do you know that?”</p><p>His grin appeared once again as he shrugged. “Dunno. I just happened to look over to Nino’s phone in class one day and noticed that they had a whole group chat dedicated to us. It’s called Adrienette, and did you know that Alya wishes we’d just shut up and make out already instead of just hanging off of each other?”</p><p>“You were spying on Nino?” She deadpanned, spinning her chair to look up at him.<br/>
“Only a little. And it was about me, so it’s justifiable. What was it about curiosity and the cat?”</p><p>“Did it not kill him?” She rolled her eyes, leaning back.</p><p>“Fair enough, but satisfaction brought it back!” He grinned, seemingly pleased with himself</p><p>She sighed, shutting her sketchbook. “So, say I agreed to this nonsensical plan of yours. You want us to pretend to date for how long?” It seemed to take a couple seconds of silence for her to realise he didn’t have an answer. “Didn’t think that far ahead?” </p><p>The amusement in her tone seemed to snap him back into reality, sobering him up. “Uh- just until we defeat Hawkmoth, I guess. Then we can have a big overdramatic breakup and be done with it."</p><p>“Really? This almost seems too easy.” She smiled slightly. “I’m in.”</p><p>“Actually? You mean it?” She could have laughed at the expression on his face, but instead she just smiled, trying to push away the feeling of butterflies in her stomach.</p><p>"Absolutely. What could go wrong?"</p><p>So much.<br/>
There was so much with this plan that could go wrong.<br/>
To begin with, he seemed oblivious to how much she cared about him. It was so far past her crush on Adrien, or the feelings she may or may not have been suppressing for Chat Noir. Now they were the same person in her mind, and everything had changed. Instead of a crush that she could have learned to get over one day, there was no denying she was in love with him.<br/>
And now they were pretending to date to help keep their identities a secret. Now instead of painfully suffocating a crush and some feelings that may or may not have existed, she was trying to drown her love for him while they were pretending to date. While he was giving her the looks that would have made her melt before the reveal, and still did, even if she could conceal it better now. Cheek kisses and hand holding and having to flirt with each other all the time? She wasn’t sure how much of this she could take.<br/>
By Monday morning she’d repeated, ‘I’m Ladybug, I can handle this,’ to herself going on fifty times. The mantra was still playing on repeat in her head as she stepped out the door to meet Adrien who’d somehow convinced his bodyguard that it was okay to walk to school, ‘just this once’. He’d been waiting for her with a sunny smile on his face as he offered his hand. “Shall we?”<br/>
She handed him the croissant she’d brought for him, smiling while the butterflies that had taken up residence in her stomach started flying around again. “We shall.”</p><p>He leaned in as they walked to school hand in hand, nudging her until he got her attention. “Just act normal. We’re the same people we were before, we just… happen to be dating now. Right?”<br/>
She took a deep breath, nodding. “Right. Thanks, sunshine.”</p><p>“Anytime, princess.” He grinned, laughing as she ruffled his hair with her free hand, pulling him up the stairs and into the school behind her.</p><p>Marinette honestly didn’t know what kind of reaction to expect when they walked into class that day. She didn’t expect the three seconds of dead silence as everyone processed what exactly was happening before they all started screaming. Rose was squealing in excitement, Alix was yelling at Kim to pay up, and Alya had been wordlessly screaming for an inhuman amount of time. </p><p>So in other words, it went well.</p><p>There was no akuma attack that day, which was good; She was far too flustered to actually fight or do anything other than try and get through the day. Because yep, that was Adrien Agreste, the love of her life flirting with her, shyly giving her a rose, being sweet and…<br/>
Her heart couldn’t take this. She was screwed.</p><p>Days passed. A week, two weeks- and no one had caught onto their game yet. The only thing Alya was pushing her about was to kiss him.<br/>
Of course she wasn’t going to do that, so she wasn’t going to be in the clear for a while. Or ever.<br/>
It was strange how their dynamic had changed too. They were still friends, obviously, but things were different. They were pretending to be dating in front of people, and some of their behaviour from that had transferred to the other parts of their lives as well.<br/>
Ladybug grabbing Chat’s hand after an attack, Chat kissing Ladybug’s forehead after too close of a call… they were already used to being close as superheroes, but this? This was new terrain, and the media loved it. And although they both avoided answering questions about it, it was undeniable that she loved it too.<br/>
She was just stuck in an endless loop of pining after him and reminding herself that there was a reason he’d proposed fake dating instead of just asking her out. And so she kept quiet most of the time, stuffing her emotions into a compartment, locking it and sticking it onto a shelf in the far corners of her mind where she just wished she could forget about it. </p><p>Of course akuma attacks were always worse when the boy she was trying to forget she was head over heels for threw himself into the line of fire. It had been a while since it had happened, but every so often he’d jump in front of her to shield her from an oncoming blast. They typically had different effects on him, most of which didn’t involve him collapsing. Collapsing and not getting back up.<br/>
The violent akumas were the worst, and this one needed to go down.<br/>
Now.</p><p> </p><p>She didn't remember defeating the akuma, purifying it, or the aftermath. She tuned back into the world when she dropped to her knees by Chat's side, a swirl of pink ladybugs cleaning up all the damage. She didn't even realise that she'd been crying until she saw the teardrops land on his suit, holding her breath until he coughed and sat up. "Bugaboo...?"</p><p>If he'd had anything else to say, it was cut off by her leaning closer and pressing her lips to his, so caught up in the fact that he was here and he was alive that nothing else mattered.<br/>
Until her brain caught up with her and let her know that there was still a lot that mattered and she pulled back, eyes wide. "Did I-? I- I'm so sorry, I wasn't thinking- crap." She looked away, standing up and offering a hand to help him up.</p><p>"Marinette." He whispered, accepting her hand and pulling himself up.</p><p>"You- You're not allowed to call me that right now... in costume and all..." She was looking everywhere but him, fidgeting uncomfortably. "I'm about to detransform, I need to go-"</p><p>"Marinette." He grabbed her hand, pulling her closer. "Look at me." It took her a second to oblige, leading to him sighing in relief. "Thank you. Now with all due respect, what the hell was that?"</p><p>"It was nothing, sorry- we can pretend that never happened, right?"</p><p>"Ladybug, that's not what I was saying-"</p><p>"Beep beep-” She couldn’t quite mimic the sound of her miraculous chiming, but she could damn well try. “Crap, I've got to go now, that was my timer, I'll see you at school tomorrow, bye!"<br/>
And she swung off before he could get a word in edgewise.</p><p>He wasn't there to walk her to school, or to greet her at the door. He wasn't there when she walked into class and the seat in front of her remained empty as the rest of the class filtered in. Alya looked around before sitting next to her.<br/>
"Where's Adrien?" She asked, trying to gauge Marinette's reaction.</p><p>"Not here right now. I don't know..." She let her head drop onto the desk, closing her eyes. The minutes ticked by and it seemed like he wasn't going to show up at all. After all, he was never late to school. It just wasn't what he did. Was he not feeling well? He didn't have a shoot today, she already knew that. So was he just avoiding her?</p><p>Three minutes until class started. Her head was a permanent fixture on the desk now and it seemed like Alya and Nino were having a parental sounding discussion regarding her. She heard the door open and close and Alya stood up only to sit next to her a couple seconds later.<br/>
"Hey, princess! Sorry I’m late. Had to go get something when I heard you were having a bad day."</p><p>That was not Alya.<br/>
That was his voice, far too chipper both for the hour and the occasion.<br/>
She tensed up, hesitating before looking up. "Adrien..."</p><p>He sat there next to her, nudging a box of chocolates he knew she loved towards her. "For you. Your favourites, right? Maybe they'll make you feel better."</p><p>Her voice was low as she leaned closer. "What are you doing? You don't need to pretend you like me right now. It's fine."</p><p>"Marinette, would you listen? Please?" She hesitated, refusing to meet his eyes. "If you hadn't run off on me yesterday, you'd know that I haven't been pretending."</p><p>Her heart was pounding. “Adrien, stop it, I’m really not in the mood for your jokes right now-”</p><p>“Then listen, because this isn’t.” His tone was enough to make her go quiet, her leg bouncing being the only sign of how nervous she truly was. “Yes, I like my jokes, but… would I ever lie to you, doodlebug?”</p><p>“No…”</p><p>“So listen to me, okay? I love you. Have since the day we met.” Before the entirety of what he’d said had actually processed with her, he’d leaned forwards to kiss her and everything finally seemed right.<br/>
She had an unfortunate anchor back to reality when she heard Alya’s high pitched shriek of utter delight as an entire album’s worth of photos was snapped of the two of them.<br/>
“And don’t you ever forget that.” He grinned.<br/>
Her only reply was a breathless, “I love you too,” before he pulled her into a crushing hug. “And believe me, I won’t forget it.”</p>
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